We’re hosting the neighborhood Halloween party at our house on Sunday. It will be a sort of coming out party for us, given that we have yet to host a party. I hope people come. If everyone shows up, there will be about 45 people. Yikes! Then Sam will don his dragon costume and go trick-or-treating for the first time. He was too little last year to eat any of the candy, so we didn’t want to taunt him with a plastic pumpkin full of stuff he couldn’t eat. He’s excited and asks everyone what they’re going to be for Halloween. He gets it. That’s fun.

In completely unrelated news, I found a tea that I actually enjoy. It’s Twinings Lemon Ginger tea. Yum! I’m so happy to have something to drink that’s not water. Hate water. Even with a bendy straw. I’m soooo sick of water. Bleh. Oh, and the tea has no caffeine. Even better.

Oh, how I love being normal and boring! At least when it comes to doctor’s appointments. Today’s appointment was just great. I had another great BP — 120’s over 60’s. The doctor came in and basically said, “Let’s just hang out, because we have nothing to discuss. All is well.” I can’t think of anything else that’s much better than that. Except maybe this: We got to see Baby suck her thumb today. She brought her hand (we could see every single finger!) right to her mouth and put her thumb right in her mouth! It was so adorable. 🙂 She’s measuring exactly on target for my due date: 1 pound, 4 ounces. Isn’t that great? If it stays that way, she should end up being a little bit smaller than Sam. He always measured bigger than my due date.

So, here’s to another appointment full of normalcy and boredom. Let’s hope for a repeat performance in two weeks!

This week Baby is the size of a mango — a large mango. She is about a foot long and weighs a little over a pound. She hears loud sounds outside of my body. Sam often yells into Baby’s microphone (a.k.a. my bellybutton) to tell her things. He always says, “Baby! It’s Sam!” We talk about how when he talks to Baby, she will know his voice when she comes out. I think he thinks that’s neat, but it’s hard to tell most days. Not surprisingly, Sam also has his baby sister in his tummy, too. We marvel every day that we are “twinnies!” and “samesies!” that we both have Baby Sister in our tummies.

I feel her moving on a pretty regular schedule. Late morning, around 10:30-11:00, she’s busy. Then around 4:00 in the afternoon, she starts up again. And usually between 9:30 and 10:30 at night, she’s dancing around. Speaking of dancing, she is now aware of rhythmic movements that my body does. Poor kids… both Sam and Baby are at such a rhythmic disadvantage having been, or being, carried in my body. I have a little more than zero natural rhythm. They are destined for the edges of dance floors for the rest of their lives. Oh well. Not everyone can be the theatrical triple threat. 🙂

I have another doctor’s appointment tomorrow. As 27 weeks approaches, I get more and more nervous that things are going to go haywire. That was when everything started to go downhill the first time. It’s like a milestone week that I want to get through without incident. Time will tell, and I remain optimistic that things will stay nice and boring.

Sam is in love with glue projects. He would glue shapes onto paper all day long if I’d let him. It’s interesting to see the colors he chooses. Today, he chose blue paper as his canvas and glued orange shapes onto it. Last night, it was yellow on yellow. It’s always two colors, never three, even though he has the option of more colors with the tow-color paper. I think it’s very toddler of him.

We sit and talk about things while he glues. He tells me all the things Daddy says — he remembers everything — and what kind of shape he wants next. He tells stories about the shapes. He wonders about things. I get a glimpse into his mind. It’s fascinating. And there’s no place that I would rather be than gluing construction paper shapes at the kitchen table with my little Sam.

I went to the grocery store hungry today. This was a mistake. I did a little — ok, ok, a lot — of impulse buying. The problem with the second trimester is that everything sounds good at various times in a thirty minute period. Things like bran muffins and ginger snaps and caramel apple dip and honeycrisp apples and cheese and chocolate milk and Life cereal and Smartfood white cheddar popcorn and triple berry jelly.

The other thing about second trimester is that my eyes are waaaay bigger than the amount of room Baby allows in my stomach.

In related news, I had to have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight. It was delicious.

Here in Michigan, we like to welcome fall with a round of snot. All three of us have colds. Isn’t that cute? Not really, but we like to do things together, you know? Actually, Rob was so sick, he stayed home from work for two days! That never, ever happens. I felt so bad that he was feeling crummy, but what a treat for Sam and I to have him around all day during the week.

Sam is the one really suffering now. He is so full of boogies that he can’t breathe to sleep at night. I’ve had to pull out the nasal aspirator again, to which I hear, “Nooooo, not the boogie sucker!” He’s a relatively good sport, but it “feels too funny” to do it very often. Poor kid.

In other news, this baby is a master bladder-kicker. It’s amazing! She’s got really good aim. Rob got to feel four good kicks last night, which he thinks is fun. I do, too.